L'Italo-Americano

THURS DAY,   JANUARY  31,   2013 Dear Readers, More January jottings with an Italian Connection: Jan. 1- Patron of the Renaissance Lorenzo de Medici was born in Florence 1449. -Boxer Rocky Graziano, born in 1922 in New York City, became the Middleweight Champion of the world in 1947. Jan. 3- Benito Mussolini assumed dictatorial powers in 1925. Jan. 7- Scientist Galileo Galilei identified four moons of Jupiter in 1610. Jan. 8- Marco Polo died in Venice in 1324, after a life of travel and adventure. His tales of the Orient inspired all of Europe to search for shorter routes to East Asia. The discovery of America by Columbus was one of the results. Jan. 11- Italian-American author Bernard DeVoto was born in 1897. His book, Across the Wide Missouri became a movie starring Kirk Douglas. Jan. 12- Mathematician Giorgio Ricci-Curbastro was born in 1853. He developed Absolute Differential Calculus, which was the basis for Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Jan. 13- Roman general Gaius Marius died in 86 BC. His reforms converted the Roman legions from a citizen draft to a professional army. Jan. 18- Italian admiral Francesco Caracciolo was born in Naples in 1752. As a soldier of fortune he fought on the British side during the American Revolution. Jan. 20- Fr. Alessandro Volignano died at the Portuguese colony of Macau, near Hong Kong, in 1606. He was the first Christian missionary to Japan and is credited with some 300,000 conversions. Jan. 25- Mathematician Giuseppe Luigi La Grangia (aka LaGrange) was born in Torino in 1736. During the French Revolution he chaired the committee that developed the Metric System. *** Mario Lanza, born Alfredo Arnaldo Cocozza, called "Freddy" by his parents, was born January 31, 1912 in the "City of Brotherly Love", Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the only child of Antonio (Tony) Cocozza and Maria Lanza. His parents were immigrants from the Abruzzo region of Italy who came to America as children. One day, Tony wandered into the Lanza family grocery store for salami, and six weeks later he made the pretty clerk behind the counter his wife.
 Tony was injured in World War I and received a disability pension for life. He spent most of his time hanging around the house in South Philadelphia's Little Italy listening to his collection of opera records. By doing so, opera became a constant in little Freddy's life. At the tender age of 7, Freddy listened to Caruso's recording of "Vesti la giubba" by Pagliacci and tried L'Italo-Americano to learn how to sing like his idol.
 Listening to Freddy's rich voice fill the corners of their home convinced Tony and Mary that they had brought a musical child prodigy into the world and hired a voice teacher to coach their son. As Mario grew older he was introduced by his teacher to musical heavyweights, among them Serge Koussevitzky, who led the Boston Symphony. When Mario sang, Koussevitzky was convinced he had discovered a voice like no other. But all concurred: the voice needed work. He invited Mario to the 1942 Berkshire Music Festival in Tanglewood, Mass., where gifted musicians went on scholarship to train and learn. Leonard Bernstein also attended that year. Rumors started to emerge about an exciting new tenor who was as good or better than the best tenors of the day and Managers began to hover. Unfortunately, his career would have to wait. Uncle Sam had other ideas for the boy from South Philly. The world was at war, and on Jan. 5, 1943, Alfredo Cocozza was inducted into the United States Army Air Corps. Before long Private Cocozza found himself in Marfa, Texas, patrolling the dusty MexicanAmerican border. 
 Miserable and depressed he began to eat. Perhaps in answer to his mother's prayers Private Cocozza got lucky. A noncommissioned officer and comic named Johnny Silver began to scour the rosters for talent to perform in military variety shows. Eventually, Mario got a part in the musical "On the Beam" and left the ugly life in PAGE  23 Marfa behind to entertain the troops. Later, he became part of a 342-member cast in the production "Winged Victory".
 The cast included such notables as Red Buttons, Karl Malden and George Reeves. When the show concluded its run in New York, the entire cast was sent to Hollywood to film the movie version. Being in the cast opened doors.
 Mario Lanza was born in 1921, in the same year opera great Enrico Caruso died. Hollywood liked to play up this fact as if it were preordained that two of the greatest voices of the 20th century would pass into and out of life. Both men would die prematurely. Both would earn a place in the history of music. As the first operatic tenor to become a full-blown Hollywood star, Lanza's place as a "crossover" pioneer is unique. He successfully bridged the gap between and popular classical music and became the inspiration for those such as the Three Tenors who would later do the same. *** Giovanni (Gianni) Agnelli died January 24, 2003 at his home in Italy at age 81. L'Avvocato, as he was affectionately known, was loved by thousands in Italy. Agnelli was born March 12, 1921 at the Agnelli estate in the foothills of Hayworth and Anita Ekberg and dozens of lesser known lovelies.
 He became a devotee of the jet set, living the international good life with pals like Porfirio Rubirosa and Ali Khan. He learned English and French well and made contacts to last him a lifetime. This phase of his life came to a halt in 1952, when he crashed his Ferrari into the rear of a butcher's truck after a wild night in Monte Carlo. At age 32, Agnelli married Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto, a beautiful Neapolitan princess nicknamed "The Italian Swan" by American writer Truman Capote. After his wedding, Agnelli began working steadily at Fiat.
 By age 45, Agnelli worked steadily adapting FIAT to a changing world and was famous for waking up his sleeping managers at 6 a.m. with phone calls during which he He expected alert discussion.
 proved to be a real leader. Agnelli was the first big industrialist to negotiate with labor unions, leading the way for the rest of Italy. He stood up to terrorism of the 1970s by courageously firing 61 of his workers for being agitators of the Red Brigade and keeping 140,000 Fiat workers from doing their jobs.
 Agnelli would often cap off a hard 10-hour day at his Fiat office in Turin by taking his per- Gianni Agnelli the Italian Alps Villar Perosa, near Torino. Giovanni was the eldest son of Edoardo Agnelli and Princess Virginia Bourbon del Monte. His father died when Agnelli was 14 in a seaplane crash and his mother, when he was 24, in a car crash.
 In World War II, Agnelli joined the Italian army and served as a cavalry lieutenant in Russia, where he was wounded twice, and in North Africa. At the war's end, when he was only 23, his grandfather gave him the Fiat vice presidency. But he was fresh from the trenches, and in no hurry to storm the corporate battlefields. He followed words of advice from his grandfather: "Divertiti un po' e poi quando ti sentirai pronto, ti occuperai degli affari" ("Have some fun first and then when you feel ready, you'll take over the business"). Armed with a yearly income of more than $1 million, a handsome face and a great deal of wit and charm, Agnelli hobnobbed with the international jetset, cavorting between New York, St. Moritz and the French Riviera and dating scores of ravishing beauties. Socialite Pamela Churchill Harriman, actresses Rita sonal jet to London for dinner.
 A keen sportsman, he skied regularly despite a leg injury and was often seen sailing beautiful yachts. Agnelli owned Italy's most popular and prestigious soccer club, Juventus, and a chunk of the Ferrari company, which competed in the Formula One circuit, which he followed passionately.
 As president of Fiat, Agnelli weathered a jarring series of ups and downs. During the 1970s, the oil crisis, terrorism, union struggles and shrinking markets almost brought his company to its knees. The '80s saw Fiat stage a formidable comeback, and the '90s were intermittently successful.
 Agnelli suffered hardships in his family life as well. His nephew Giovannino Agnelli, who was being groomed to take over at Fiat, died of a rare form of stomach cancer in 1997. Agnelli's only son, Edoardo, committed suicide three years later. Throughout, he remained stubbornly optimistic. When Giovannino died, he swiftly appointed 26-year-old John Elkann, the son of his daughter Margherita, as his successor. ***

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